


You Don't Need to Ask Why She's Afraid of the Dark

by delicateclarity



Category: Glee
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-17
Updated: 2013-02-17
Packaged: 2017-11-29 14:00:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/687784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delicateclarity/pseuds/delicateclarity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Santana's grandmother dies and she isn't sure how to react. Rachel helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Don't Need to Ask Why She's Afraid of the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Pezberry Week, day 7 (free day).

“Santana, there’s something I need to tell you,” her mother says through the phone.  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“It’s your abuela... she - she had a massive stroke and - Santana, she’s gone.” she could hear her mother’s voice become thick.  
  
There was a ringing in her ears as Santana froze and her breath caught in shock.  
  
Her lips moved before she was aware of it. “Dead?” she asked. She didn’t recognize her own voice. She sounded lost and confused, like a little child.  
  
Her mom sniffled and confirmed it, and Santana managed to talk herself out of the conversation and hung up.  
  
She had to book a flight out to Lima and pack for the funeral. But, instead, she sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at her feet.  
  
About ten minutes later, Rachel came in from class. “Santana?” she called out to the seemingly empty apartment. Santana didn’t answer. She hears Rachel’s footsteps coming closer.  
  
“Santan-” Rachel cut herself off when she walked into their bedroom. She let out a gasp as she saw Santana sitting there.  
  
Rachel rushed to Santana and Santana finally looked up, becoming aware of the tears glittering in her own eyes.  
  
“San, what’s wrong?” Rachel’s voice was trembling and her eyes were wide, afraid.  
  
Santana’s lower lip quivered as she opened her mouth. “My grandmother died,” she answered, and she knew she didn’t have to specify which one.  
  
And it was so _stupid_ , she thought. She hadn’t spoken to her abuela in three years, since she’d come out and been utterly rejected.  
  
Rachel’s face crumbled into a mask of sadness, and she knelt in front of Santana, placing a hand on both knees and looking up into Santana’s face.  
  
A pause, and then a soft, “It’s okay to be upset.”  
  
A sob clawed its way out of Santana and came out choked as she finally let herself cry. She slid onto the floor and into Rachel’s arms, let herself be comforted even in her conflicted anguish.  
  
“I’m still so mad at her,” Santana started to speak in between hitches breaths, sounding borderline hysterical.  
  
“I trusted her with something so important to me and she just-”  
  
A soothing, tiny hand rubbed against the small of her back.  
  
“And she’s just gone and she never said she loved me again or forgave me and I haven’t forgiven her and-” Santana shuddered as three years’ worth of hurt worked its way out of her, scalding her insides.  
  
“-and I never said _goodbye_! I always - I always thought - _hoped_ \- that - that one day she would just call me on the phone and ask me how my day was and complain about my grandfather, but now she can’t because she’s _dead_!” Santana almost screamed the last part before dissolving back into straight sobs. She could feel a few of Rachel’s own tears fall into her hair, but she mostly ignored them and let Rachel calm her down until she was all cried out, leaving Rachel with a gross wet patch on her shirt that she couldn’t bring herself to care about.  
  
Rachel took a hand and wiped at Santana’s wet face, before cupping her jaw. Very deliberately, she stared Santana in the eye and said “I love you.”  
  
Santana let out a shaky breath and answered “I love you, too.”  
  
They stayed like that for a minute before Rachel gave Santana a hesitant smile and said “I have some frequent flyer miles I can use, I can book our flight.”  
  
Santana nodded, giving Rachel a small smile in return, wiped her eyes, and said, “Okay.”


End file.
